This invention relates to a writing device for erasably rewriting the display contents on a display member provided on a drug carrier.
In a medical facility such as a hospital or a pharmacy, large-scale mechanization is being done to efficiently prepare and collect drugs such as medicines and medical materials for each patient according to the instructions on prescription in a short time. For example, a system is embodied in which a plurality of injection drug dispensers for dispensing a large number of and various kinds of and ampules for injection are installed in a predetermined order, and different kinds of injection ampules are dispensed from the dispensers and put into carriers, and the carriers are transported through a conveyor provided along these dispensers to send them to an inspecting station to supply them to each patient through strict inspection.
As another example of the system for collecting drugs in carriers for transportation, a drug transportation device in which a conveyor device is provided along packaging devices for powder drugs and tablets and the drugs prepared are collected in carriers and sent to an inspecting station is known from Japanese patent publication 7-81737. In this device, an IC card for storing information is built in a carrier, and information stored is displayed in a liquid crystal display provided on the carrier, or the information is read in a non-contact manner to display the information on display devices of various drug preparation units.
In such a system including injection drug dispensing devices or drug preparation/transportion devices, prescription information about the contents of a carrier is printed on a sheet of paper and the sheet is put into it, such information as a patient name or voucher number corresponding to a carrier is printed on a name tab or an adhesive label and it is manually stuck on the side of the carrier so that they can be accurately handed to patients. As examples in which display of the contents of carriers or containers or display showing the correlation is done in technical fields other than medical field in which drugs are collected and carried, the following are known.
In Japanese patent publication 4-35848, there are disclosed a method and a device for controlling, using a production control device, a device for treating articles such as semiconductor products such as wafers by means of a memory media such as IC cards. This control method includes steps of tallying data on articles stored in an IC card detachably mounted on a container of the articles to be treated with data about treatment of the articles stored in the control device beforehand, dismounting the IC card, transferring the articles to be treated to a container for treatment and carrying out predetermined treatment, transferring the articles into the original container, fitting an IC card corresponding to the articles on this container, and writing the data about the treatment carried out into the IC card.
In Japanese patent publication 8-91382, using a card that needs no adhesive or an adhesive label, the card mounted on a container is automatically dismounted to improve workability. With a container being fed on a conveyor line having its position restricted in the width direction by guides, a dismounting lever is inserted into a space at rear of a card mounted on the side of the container to dismount the card.
Japanese patent publication 9-249689 discloses a device in which a pocket for receiving a data carrier as an information storing means is provided in a side plate of the cassette for carrying articles and the data carrier is mounted and dismounted to and from the cassette. In washing the cassette on which the data carrier is to be mounted, in order to avoid any bad influence on the data carrier, the latter is dismounted from the cassette, and after washing the cassette, it is re-mounted and information is written into the data carrier.
In medical facilities, drugs, medical materials, etc. are often received in carriers (generally called trays) separately for respective patients based on prescriptions and instructions by doctors. In order to hand drugs and the like stored therein correctly to patients, it is necessary to display at least such information as patient names or voucher numbers corresponding to the contents of carriers. For such requirements, the one in which an IC card or a display is provided on a carrier is of a type suitable for handling carriers almost fully automatically not manually. Thus, although the contents are displayed on the display, patient names or the like are not displayed. Also, general carriers other than those described above are mere containers and, of course, have no displays for patient names or the like.
Thus, in order that they can be used to display information on patient names or the like for any of the types, in medical facilities, such information is printed on name tags or adhesive labels, and before the carriers are used, they are manually stuck on the sides of the carriers and manually removed after use. But the work of manually sticking and unsticking display labels will be a large burden if the number of patients is large, and human error is inevitable. Also, adhesive labels may come off. After unsticking, glue will remain, so that the surface is stained. Further, since adhesive labels are disposed after use, the running cost is high.
Thus, carriers having the function of displaying, using not expensive members such as displays by IC cards but inexpensive members are desired.
By the way, display members that meet the above requirements, and printers which can write desired display contents on such display members are already commercially available. The display members allow display contents such as letters to be repeatedly written and erased. The printers can write display contents on the display members or erase them by applying a predetermined temperature. Using such a display member and printer, desired display contents are displayed on the display member and the display member is fitted on a carrier for drugs as described above. Since the display member can be used repeatedly, the running cost is lower than with an adhesive label and it is possible to prevent soiling of the carrier. But the display member has to be still manually fitted on a carrier, so that the burden of mounting and dismounting work remains. There is also the possibility of human errors.
An object of the present invention is to provide a writing device for carrier display members in which, using inexpensive display members which allow repeated writing and erasing, they are detachably attached to carriers, and in which information on patient names can be writably and erasably written on the display members, while preventing soiling of the carriers, achieving mechanization of work, and improving work efficiency.
According to this invention, there is provided a writing device for display members for a carrier comprising an attach/detach/transfer means for detaching, attaching and transferring a display member to the carrier detachably carrying the display member on one side thereof, and a writing means connected to the attach/detach/transfer means for erasably writing and displaying patient information on the display member, the attach/detach/transfer means and the writing means being controlled based on drug information in prescriptions, thereby attaching and detaching the display member to and from the carrier and writing patient information on the display member.
This writing device is used to attach a display member to the side of a carrier used to carry drugs automatically or manually in a hospital or a pharmacy and erasably display patient information on it. By displaying patient information, it will help correctly handing drugs to patients or distributing them in a hospital.
The writing means for repeatedly erasing and writing display contents on the display member is generally used by inserting the display member manually through its insert port to rewrite the display contents. But in view of hygienic control and efficiency of drug preparation work in hospitals, it is desirable to attach the display member not manually but mechanically. Thus, the attach/detach/transfer means is provided at a predetermined position.
When the carrier is placed at the predetermined position so that its side contacts the attach/detach/transfer means, the display member carried on the side is dismounted, transferred and fed into the writing device. Patient information based on drug information on prescriptions is written on the display member by the writing means. The display member is then returned and fitted on the side of the carrier. Since the display member allows erasing and writing to be repeated a plurality of times, it is not discarded after one-time use but can be used several hundred times. Thus, the cost is low and fitting can be done efficiently.
Other features and objects of the present invention will become apparent from the following description made with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: